Ms Karen Trant:

Yes. I will make a distinction between the meter and smart tariffs. If someone takes up a smart meter, there is no obligation right now to transfer his or her data or to allow those data to go to other suppliers. The smart meter is doing what the previous meter did, except it is recording data at a half-hourly rate. This can only be good for the customer, as he or she is not getting the meter read physically. The data are going to the customer's supplier.

If the customer decides to go onto a time-of-use tariff, it is a challenge to move him or her back to what suppliers call a 24-hour standard tariff. It is a supplier issue, and suppliers are now developing that kind of product because there will be people who want to revert. It is still early days but, from what we can see, the smart time-of-use tariffs are slightly lower than the standard tariffs that suppliers are offering. There is value out there.

As Ms MacEvilly pointed out, the old type of meter will become obsolete, so it will be difficult for someone with a smart meter to, for whatever reason, revert to an old meter. That presents a challenge. However, I believe the Senator's question was more about the information flowing from the meter rather than the meter itself.